Creating a Smart Post Office appealing to Millennials ...

[Pages:16]Creating a Smart Post Office appealing to Millennials Insights from a Digital-native

Content

3

Content

4

Introduction

6

The Millennials

An audience to consider

9

Reinventing the post

Can we facilitate e-commerce for Millennials by being

more mobile?

10 The Smart Post Office The `Phygital' connection to Millennials

12 Think big, start small, scale fast A framework to disrupt

13 Conclusion

14 Contact

Creating a Smart Post Office appealing to Millennials Insights from a Digital-native 3

Introduction

With their big demands and high expectations1, Millennials ? also known as Generation Y - are one of the most important targets for brands as they have an increasingly higher purchase power and the capacity to influence their friends and families2. As we will see below, Millennials are generally not loyal to brands, but can become brand lovers if their high expectations are met. They are digital-natives, a fast-moving generation and `alwayson' customers. They want to have everything, at anytime, anywhere ? and thanks to new technologies this is now possible3. The generations following Millennials will be even more rooted into the available technologies as they, in turn, will grow up with their eyes fixed on the screens of their devices. Businesses have to profit from this digital disruption and re-design their services to offer a positive user experience.

In this context, the challenge for postal organisations is significant. Their role is to act as a trusted third party facilitating omni-channel interactions and communication between people,

while minimising their ecological footprint. One way for postal operators to cope with this challenge, is to offer a personalised, safe and welcoming shopping experience in their own retail stores, connecting the offline and online worlds through mobile technologies. The digitalisation of post offices and the exploration of e-commerce solutions is a crucial step in order to attract Millennials. But, rather than launching a brand new digital post, the postal sector should focus on some key strategic priorities and leverage existing assets. This point of view will provide examples of this.

The next chapters will go deeper in these different areas, by first dealing with the reason why the postal service needs to re-invent itself to attract the young generations (back) into their stores. It will then address the main digital challenges and finally tackle some concrete solutions to answer the needs of the Millennials.

1 DELOITTE, "The Millennial Survey; Big demands and High expectations", DTTL (2014),

2 Dan Schawbel, "10 New Findings About the Millennial Consumer" FORBES (Jan 2015),

3 DELOITTE, "The omnichannel opportunity; Unlocking the power of the connected consumer" DTTL (Feb 2014),

4

While Millennials are teaching the older generation how to step into the digital sphere, some of them don't even know how to post a letter.

Creating a Smart Post Office appealing to Millennials Insights from a Digital-native 5

The Millennials An audience to consider

As a proud member of Generation Y, digital-savvy and communication-addict, it's a pleasure to describe my peers and their interaction with the brands. To structure this point- of view, I would like to tackle four key principles that characterise the Millennials and illustrate them with significant statistics and concrete examples.

DigitalNatives

Brand Lovers

Social Shopper

Fast & Mobile generation

Digital-Natives

Who are we? By definition, as a digital-native, we were born between 1980 and 1990, meaning that in 2015 we are around 25-35 years old. Our history has been marked by the arrival of the Internet, e-mail, Google, Facebook, Twitter, the mobile phone and then the smartphone, blogs, streaming and high-speed connections. For us, it is actually strange to imagine a world without any technology or Wi-Fi connection.

Living with technology We will get frustrated if we work for an employer that doesn't provide any up-to-date devices, if we sleep in a hotel that doesn't have a good internet connection, if we shop in a supermarket that is missing self-scanning, if we attend an event that requires a printed ticket, if our financial statements are waiting for us at the bank, if we need to be available during office hours to pick-up a parcel... (and the list goes on).4

Living without the Internet and digital facilities is not possible for us. And brands that empower our virtual interaction and ease our online consumption are giving us a reason to be loyal as they simplify our day to day life. Furthermore, through online interaction, we will gladly give anonymous data which will contribute to enriching your knowledge of us as a consumer. In return, we expect companies to learn from this data and improve our customer experience.

Social shopper:

We are naturally social and connected The first thing we do when we wake up and the last thing before going to sleep is to go through our smartphone/ social media notifications. With the arrival of Instagram and Snapchat, the youngest generations have found other ways to socialise. Interacting virtually with our close environment is a common past-time and a natural step before any impactful action. Indeed, from dating through to buying an apartment, from buying clothes to booking our holiday, every single meaningful decision is shared and directly influenced by our communities.

Our comfort zone with social media Either from our laptop on the company's website or through our mobile device while shopping in a physical point-of-sale (POS), we are always connected to social medias. The brands that enable an adapted social shopping experience have understood how to influence our purchasing behaviour while attracting new potential customers.

4 DELOITTE, "The Deloitte Millennial Survey; Mind the Gaps" DTTL (2015), .

5 The Business strategy of Groupon mentions "Groupon finds the best deals for clients, but to be valid a minimum number of clients must buy the product, otherwise the transaction does not happen" The complete text is available at

6 Jon Schepke, "315 Business Boost rankings by optimising local pages", Search Engine Watch (Nov, 2013),

7 McDonals application available from the app store:

6

Modern Consumption In that context, collective consumptions proposed by companies such as Groupon5 have even brought the power of social media to a higher level. Recommending a product to a friend is a key functionality enabled by any social brand on their website or mobile application. But when this action actually has a direct impact on your own consumption, or could even decrease the price you pay, it becomes a considerable strength for companies and an exciting experience for customers. Above, we discussed the ease for Millennials to share their frustration or content and therefore it is important to consider the impact of the available (negative or positive) data concerning your services. Various studies have shown that our generation are more likely to trust friends than marketing campaigns and furthermore, Millennials are empowered consumers through their ease of access to information. In case of doubt, in a store they will be able to check the information given by a vendor directly online.

From Ownership to Temporary Access Lastly, the sharing economy gave birth to new business models and disruptive players are reinventing collaborative consumption through technologies. The shift in consumer values from ownership to temporary access is mostly happening in young generations and brands have to surf on this sharing trend.

Fast & Mobile generation

Empowered by Technology As mentioned above, thanks to mobile devices and high-speed Wi-Fi, we are always connected. And with the arrival of the cloud solutions, we can store a lot of data (images, video, sounds, etc.) in our pocket and easily retrieve it. Ultimately, there is no reason for not using smartphones in our daily life as we consider them as a task-simplifying tool.

High expectations Consequently the need for accessibility (everything in one single place) and the digital urgency ("I want it now") has increased our level of expectation when consuming a product or a service.

The incredible power of micro-localisation integrated in our smartphones has allowed us to instantly find an available shared-bicycle, book a table in a restaurant, search for the closest cab or purchase a second-hand item close to our current location. Waiting is not in our vocabulary anymore.

In search of easy experiences According to the Search Engine Watch "50% of all mobile searches are conducted in hopes of finding local results, and 61% of those searches result in a purchase."6 Therefore, a fast-food provider, for example, will get the highest return from his search engine investment when a potential client is browsing via his mobile phone close to his store and around lunch time. A good example is McDonald's7 in China: in a few clicks, a check on the map, a mobile payment, your burger is ready by the time you get to the store. It's just a matter of facilitating the user experience. Indeed, we need things rapidly and the first brands able to meet our requirements will convince us. If, following our first encounter, the user experience is positive we'll definitely reduce the scope of our search... and maybe download their mobile application!

A proof of trust As we will see later, mobile technology is also the bridge between offline and online. More and more brands use it to communicate with their consumers when they're not in front of their computer, enabling them an omni-channel experience, more importantly, to access some services faster (micro-localisation, m-commerce, social networks, real-time information, and audio-visual content). Being present on Millennials' smartphones via a mobile application demonstrates a huge gain of trust. And being used on a regular basis is a first step towards brand love!

Brand Lovers

Looking for Added Value It is said that we are not loyal to companies but in fact, we are loyal to brands. As explained earlier, we expect a lot from the supplier but if the experience is positively out of the ordinary, we'll definitely recommend it and come back. Simultaneously ? and ridiculously ? we are fans of many brands on social media and we keep on `liking' and `following' when the content has an added value for us.

Creating a Smart Post Office appealing to Millennials Insights from a Digital-native 7

The Wow effect More importantly, we'll be great ambassador's offline (where the major part of the word-of-mouth still happens) as long as the experience provides us with a `wow' effect. This can be done with simple user experiences, but they need to be surprising. We are not looking for alternatives to fulfil our satisfaction, we are just in pursuit of innovative solutions. For example, if AirBnB and now Uber have become our main suppliers to discover new places and travel, it's not specifically related to their unconventional aspect but their capacity to modernise the consumption, enable the social connection through gamification, ease the access and make the experience user-friendly. We start to love the brand when a company takes these elements into consideration. A 100% mobile bank, a supermarket connected with iBeacons or an airport that accelerates our journey via technologies has every chance to conquer Generation Y... and the next generations.

Social competition To go further in the user experience, many articles show that brand love can be facilitated through gamification. Technology has enabled gamification, as it is now possible to easily compare our performance/habits/ points, etc., to our (virtual) friends. Dominos' Pizza app which selects your toppings for you is only one example of applied gamification. We have seen gamification successfully applied to sectors such as banks8, learning9, employment10, and even libraries11.

What does it mean for the Postal industry? The web (and all digital technologies) is our current playground and we are used to its level of convenience and speed. With these new stakes, well established companies such as those in the Postal industry for example have great challenges to take on.

If Amazon is able to provide us the right item, at the right place and time, there is no reason for us to go for an alternative. Within seconds we have found the product we were looking for, logged in with a social media account, added a product to our cart, paid in three clicks and even shared our experience, without having to wait in a queue.

This simplicity and ease of experience imply that Millennials will be more inclined to purchase through e-commerce than previously. Indeed, online sales worldwide are expected to grow by 14%12 from 2012 to 2016. With this in mind, the adapted delivery of online purchased products is becoming a real concern for the consumer. Today, we already have online control of our delivery through tracking and possibilities to opt for a locker pick-up and soon we expect to add additional services directly from our smartphones.

Technologies will keep on evolving and it is the Millennials belief that innovation is a must in order to survive13. Generation Y are constantly up to date with the latest technologies and expect organisations to do the same. In this regard, the postal sector can increase the usercentricity by digitalising some aspects of their services in combination with their significant competitive advantage that continues to seduce us: human interaction. The proximity to people is a key asset of the postal operators on which they can develop new innovative services. Stepping into the digital sphere does not necessarily mean that everything needs to be digitalised. It is about creating new opportunities and diversifying through digital transformation. The main challenge for posts in the coming years will therefore be to maintain their strong identity and visibility among citizens while continuing their successful diversification.

8 Citi Bank has launched a credit card with social networking as key feature, this is explained in the following document at

9 Kaplan University used gamification to increase the engagement of students, this is explained in the following document at

10 The U.S. Army uses retention tools based on gamification of rewards and recognition, this is explained in the following document at

11 Pierce County Library, uses gamifictation to motivate young readers to read during the holidays, this is explained at

12 DELOITTE, "From bricks to clicks, generating growth through eCommerce expansion" DTTL (Nov. 2014). 13 DELOITTE, "The Millennials Survey; Mind the Gaps" DTTL (2015).

8

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download